Rhabdomyosarcoma, Childhood Cancer & SickKids®

Rhabdomyosarcoma

Overall survival is 75%, but significantly less for children who present with metastatic disease

Can occur almost anywhere in the body because it is a tumor of ‘muscle’ cells

Slightly more common in boys than girls

Can occur at any age from birth as well as in adults

Treatment includes chemotherapy (to shrink tumor) with radiation and surgery used as well

New drugs are being used in phase I and II (experimental) protocols to determine whether they will be more effective than current ‘standard’ protocols; some of these drugs are showing some promise

Childhood Cancer

Most common cause of disease-related death among children

1300 new cases in Canada each year

80% overall survival but < 30% survival for children with metastatic (stage IV) tumors, many types of brain tumors and certain leukemia’s

Leukemia’s account for 1/3 of all childhood cancers

Brain tumors account for 1/3 of all childhood cancers

Non-brain solid tumors account for 1/3 of all childhood cancers

causes of childhood cancers are generally not known, but genetic factors are thought to play a significant role in perhaps as many as 40% (though specific genes have only been identified for a small fraction of these)

SickKids®

Largest children’s hospital in Canada; among 3 largest in North America

Treats 25% of all childhood cancer patients in Canada (65% of Ontario’s)

Largest (by far) research institute in a children’s hospital in Canada and among the largest hospital-affiliated research institutes

300 newly diagnosed cancer patients each year

Over 40 research labs conducting cancer research: genetics of cancer; looking for new drugs; studying long-term effects of treatment; identifying the cancer ‘stem cell’ – the earliest cells that lead to tumor formation; studies with both human tumor samples as well as modeling tumors in animals (usually mice)

SickKids Hospital in Toronto

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